Anakin Skywalker's eventual transformation into Darth Vader might have more to do with psychological issues than the Force, researchers hint.

The tragic hero of the "Star Wars" prequels displays patterns of instability and impulsivity in the second and third films that make him an obvious candidate for borderline personality disorder (BPD), according to French psychiatrists and psychologists.

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But like any good doctor, Bui also has a treatment recommendation.

"I believe that psychotherapy would have helped Anakin and might have prevented him from turning to the dark side," Bui said. "Using the dark side of the Force could be considered as similar to drug use: It feels really good when you use it, it alters your consciousness and you know you shouldn’t do it."

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Anakin Skywalker's eventual transformation into Darth Vader might have more to do with psychological issues than the Force, researchers hint.

That's partially true. Anakin almost certainly fell to the Dark Side because of his plethora of psychological issues, at least initially.

That said, the impression I got was that it was a "positive feedback" type of situation. His emotional issues would cause him to draw upon the Dark Side in hatred, anger, and fear. This was addictive (and easier each time), and it warped his personality, favoring those aspects that he used to draw upon the Dark Side. In turn, that made it easier to draw upon the Dark Side, which warped him even more, and so on. It's a slippery slope.

That's one of the reasons why the scene just after the Dooku fight, where Anakin kills a disarmed Count Dooku in cold blood, is important. It made it easier for him to continue down that path, whereas when Luke faced that test in "Return of the Jedi", he renounced it.

This analysis presumes that Anakin's transformation into Darth Vader was pathological. I disagree. Given that Anakin's choices were to continue life as a twerpy, whiny-ass, wooden young actor or become a six-and-a-half-foot-tall dude in a suit of awesome black armor WHO SOUNDS LIKE JAMES EARL JONES AND CAN CHOKE THE SHIT OUT OF PEOPLE FROM ACROSS A ROOM, we all know there was only sane choice.

It's worth noting that healthcare in Starwars is generally... terrifying at best. I mean, Anakin get's his robot parts grafted on without even an anesthetic, and apparently Death in Childbirth is common enough to be a serious fear, as outlined nicely in http://www.cracked.com/article_18475_6-horrifying-implications-awesome-fantasy-movie-universes_p2.html